Josh Smith Powers Blue Jays Past Phillies 5-4
Toronto got one run here, one run there, and a Josh Smith homer before the ninth inning tried to become performance art.
The Blue Jays went into Philadelphia on Friday and won 5-4.
This is already suspicious.
They had 9 hits, made 2 errors, left 9 on base, and still escaped with a road win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Phillies had 5 hits, made 0 errors, left 11 on base, and somehow spent most of the night looking like a team trying to parallel park a sofa.
Baseball is a normal sport for normal people, if those people are raccoons wearing reading glasses.
Josh Smith was the main character.
He went 3-for-4 with a homer and an RBI.
By Blue Jays standards, that is not a batting line. That is a grant proposal.
Josh Smith brought his own plot
Smith was activated by Toronto on August 3.
The transaction log says the Texas Rangers traded 2B Josh Smith and RHP Josh Stephan to Toronto for LHP Adam Macko.
On Friday, Smith looked less like a new guy and more like someone who had found the correct button on the weird hotel thermostat.
In the fourth, Nathan Lukes singled on a ground ball to right fielder Bryce Harper, and Smith scored.
In the sixth, Alejandro Kirk hit a sacrifice fly to right fielder Bryce Harper, and Smith scored again.
In the eighth, Smith homered, number 2, on a fly ball to right center field off Caleb Kilian.
That is a tidy little night.
Not tidy in the way a nice person folds towels.
Tidy in the way a raccoon opens a green bin with startling professionalism.
The Jays have spent enough of this season at 3.9 runs per game that any night with five runs feels like finding a twenty-dollar bill in a winter coat.
Then you remember the coat is on fire.
The scoring came one snack at a time
Toronto did not exactly explode.
Toronto left a trail of breadcrumbs and asked the scoreboard to please be grateful.
In the second, Andrés Giménez homered, number 8, on a fly ball to right field off Zack Wheeler.
In the third, Kirk hit a sacrifice fly to center fielder Justin Crawford, and Brett Bateman scored.
In the fourth, Lukes singled and Smith scored.
In the sixth, Kirk hit another sacrifice fly, this time to Harper in right, and Smith scored.
In the eighth, Smith hit the homer.
One run.
One run.
One run.
One run.
One run.
This was not a rally.
This was the Blue Jays paying for a win in nickels while everyone behind them in line sighed loudly.
Kirk finished 0-for-3 and still had 2 RBI, which is beautiful in the way a tax loophole is beautiful.
Lukes went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Giménez had the solo homer.
Brett Bateman went 1-for-2 and scored on Kirk’s third-inning sacrifice fly.
George Springer went 1-for-4.
Jesús Sánchez went 1-for-1.
Kazuma Okamoto went 0-for-5, which was not ideal, but the team won, so we place that in the drawer labeled discuss later with the strange batteries.
The pitching staff wore nametags
José Soriano started and gave the Jays 4.2 innings, 1 earned run, and 3 strikeouts.
Soriano was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels on August 3 and activated on August 4.
So, yes, the rotation is currently less a rotation and more a group chat called does anyone have cleats.
Still, the line worked.
Brendon Little gave 0.2 innings with 0 earned runs.
Matt Waldron, activated on Friday after being claimed off waivers from the San Diego Padres on August 5, gave 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout.
Mason Fluharty gave 0.1 innings with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout.
Tyler Rogers gave 1.0 inning with 1 earned run.
Lazaro Estrada gave 1.1 innings with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout.
The pitching totals were 6 strikeouts and 2 earned runs.
That is how you survive a game with two Toronto errors and enough runners left on base to form a small municipal committee.
The ninth inning brought a rubber chicken
Of course the bottom of the ninth got weird.
This is the Blue Jays.
The ninth inning does not arrive; it kicks through drywall.
Trea Turner grounded into a force out, first baseman Okamoto to shortstop Giménez, with Bryson Stott scoring, Justin Crawford going to third, Derek Hill out at second, and Turner reaching first.
Then Bryce Harper singled on a ground ball to second baseman Ernie Clement, and Crawford scored.
The final still read 5-4.
The win still counts.
No footnotes.
No fine print.
No requirement to explain why our living room suddenly smells like stress.
The Jays are 55-62, with a .470 winning percentage, a 6-4 last ten, a W1 streak, and a division rank of 5.
Not exactly a parade route.
More like a parade that gets briefly redirected through a loading dock.
But Friday was a win, and Josh Smith was good, and the Phillies were left staring at 11 men stranded like they missed the last train.
Saturday brings Max Scherzer against Aaron Nola.
Please bring the same Josh Smith.
Please leave the ninth-inning kazoo in Philadelphia.
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